Re: RWW - log off after timeout?

I think you may be chasing your tail Susan. There are several ways to
"force" a logoff of a user, but you never know if that user was actually
doing something at the time of the logoff or if the session has just been
"orphaned" (user did not log off the LAN workstation, RWW session timed out,
RDP session was left running).

I've been fighting this same thing for quite some time and haven't found a
suitable solution other than VNCing into the workstation. IMHO, a forced
log off is not the answer (data can be lost if the user leaves files open,
but not saved, and a forced logoff is implemented). We really need a way to
determine if the RWW part of the session has "timed out" while the RDP
session still running. Even then, we would still not know if the user had
open files on his workstation when RWW timed out (again, the Open Files and
Sessions parts of Server Management might give us clues about this).

BTW... I also have a problem with RWW users "connecting their drives" to
transfer data. Since you don't know where the remote machine has been, who
it's been talking to, or what the state of its antivirus/antispyware is,
this seems like a perfect path for trojans or other malware to inject
themselves into the network. I normally remove the "Connect Drives" option
in RWW so the RWW user doesn't even know about it.

--
Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
============================
"SusanV" <svanallen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%234O827A4HHA.3400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Merv, I'd never heard of this software before! I looked into an
article on shadowing an XP Remote session but boy it was fugly... If I
can't work out the logoff, this will be very helpful! I'd rather get the
logoff working, though, so that if user A leaves a machine locked on
Friday night User B can still get in on Saturday without interrupting my
weekend <grin>

I found this article, which will logoff using a screensaver, rather than
locking the machine:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314999

However, I can't implement this on the in-house folks - only the RWW
connections.

Next step - how can I set a policy to set the user's screensaver to the
winexit.scr if the user logged on via Remote Desktop, and to whatever's in
their profile if logged in locally?

<digs deeper>
--
SusanV

"Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" <mwport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:unu4%232A4HHA.5740@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I normally install TightVNC (www.tightvnc.com, a remote control program)
on each workstation and put only the "listener" portion on the SBS server.
From the server, this allows me to access their workstation session and
"look over their shoulder" to see if there is any activity. If there
appears to be no activity, I can then log them off from within the
TightVNC user interface, then close the TightVNC session.

You can also look for activity in these two places in the Server
Management Console, although I'm convinced this 100% reliable as I've
seen a few times when the info at this places was not accurate. (This is
where VNC comes in handy).

Server Management | Advanced Management | Computer Management | System
Tools | Shared Folders | Sessions
Server Management | Advanced Management | Computer Management | System
Tools | Shared Folders | Open Files

--
Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
============================

"SusanV" <svanallen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23TTognA4HHA.1208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi all,

I have 2 PCs setup for users who are out of the office to connect to via
RWW in order to transfer files or whatever, all is working fine, however
sometimes a remote user will "forget" to log off, leaving the machine
locked. I can unlock it by forcing a logoff, but I hate to do this as I
can't tell whether the user is actually active or simply left the
session open - on a couple of occasions I've bumped a user who was in
the middle of something during a time they are not normally logged on,
and needless to say they weren't best pleased.

Is there a way to force a RWW session to log the user off after a set
time of inactivity?

Failing that, is there a way to check if the user is active before
bumping them?

I know this is more of a "training" issue, but some refuse to be trained
<g>

TIA,

SusanV







.

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